Strap in and buckle up. Numerous opportunities to define our own future are coming to the Mountain Communities again.

Developments

•A meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 21 at Gorman School asked what concerns you, the public, want to see investigated in the environmental impact report for Tejon Ranch Company’s Centennial Village development. For instance, what will traffic be like on Interstate-5 if 60,000 new residents are living in Gorman, near Quail Lake and Highway 138? The current data from Los Angeles County’s Department of Regional Planning says the plan is to build 19,000 houses, with industrial and commercial zones.

•On Thursday, Oct. 22 Frazier Park Public Utility District is holding a meeting at 6 p.m. (complete with refreshments to entice commuters). They will share with the public the data they have collected so far about regional water supply. They will tell what they’ve learned so far about options for annexing Lake of the Woods.

• Earlier that same day, at noon on October 22, LOW resident and businessman Richard Sheffield, Supervisor David Couch, county engineers and interested neighbors are meeting to walk through what Sheffield says are flood-prone areas that need to be addressed before El Niño strikes.

Residents of all areas of the mountain with flood concerns—LOW to Frazier Park to Lebec—have been bumping into disappointing responses from the county lately.

•In July, August and September, residents from the entire mountain were invited to join the Frazier Mountain Park Master Plan brainstorms. Smart new faces came to share great ideas.

Right now, the beautiful park can’t be used to even play soccer or baseball because there are so many unattended “ankle buster” rodent holes.

Supervisor Couch and Kern County Parks and Recreation Director Bob Lerude said plainly “Kern County doesn’t have enough money to do a better job of maintenance.”

This is unacceptable for those who pay taxes and are looking for solutions from Bakersfield.

We Are Resourceful

But people who live in these mountains are resourceful.

Those at the park meetings began immediately talking about developing a Friends of Frazier Mountain Park organization. They talked about putting together work groups to keep the park a clean, fun and safe place for families and children to enjoy.

They talked about research to create an economic opportunity zone, or a recreation district, or a community service area to empower the community to maintain its precious assets.

No Other Master

That kind of self governance and self-determination are dear to people who choose to live in a mountain region like this.

To respond to the opportunities and challenges immediately ahead of us, we need the steady hand of a locally elected Town Council again, or a locally elected Municipal Advisory Council (a MAC), which will have no other master than the people who live here.

Mr. Couch and his staff are great allies, but they serve all of District 4, sometimes with conflicting interests.

Where are the local voices to help define the goals and vision of the Mountain Communities again? Bakersfield can’t do that for us. We have to do it for ourselves.

The Easy Stuff Is Done

Richard Sheffield said last week, “Supervisor Couch has done all the easy stuff in his first term. Now we have to tackle the tough stuff.”

Do we have clear-thinking local residents who love their hometown and want to work together to speak up for ourselves? To find solutions? To negotiate new options? We do. I’ve seen you in action.

The Campaign Promise

David Couch promised in his first election campaign that he would support local elections of Mountain Community MAC members. He said it is logical that local names should go on the county’s general election ballot.

After he was elected, Couch and staffer Mark Salvaggio (with the urging of Kern County Administrator John Nilon) started to backpedal on that promise.

What Promise?

“It is too expensive” to allow us to vote, Nilon said. But California state law created locally-elected MACs as a way to bring better governance to rural areas. And the general election every four years is the most cost-efficient election in which to include local candidates.

“But,” Couch said, “there are unanswered questions about the idea of an elected MAC….” He never defined those questions so they could be efficiently answered to let the promise move forward.

Red Herring

What we heard was a question about whether each region of the mountain wants to elect its own specific representative to the MAC, or if all members of the council can be elected “at large.”

Either will work just fine to start. The former Town Council invited “at large” candidates. The school board elects “at large.” Surely, that is not an insurmountable question. But in 2012 it served as a red-herring to stop forward momentum to local elections.

Now, doing nothing is not an option. The mountain needs its own leadership to set a schedule and implement real action.

A locally elected Mountain Communities MAC is within reach

Much of the hard work has already been done. The community worked out the bylaws seven years ago.

That work was hijacked by former Supervisor Ray Watson, the man Couch replaced. Watson removed the crucial bylaw about electing our own MAC council members. He appointed his own friends instead.

Watson’s “Rubber Stamp MAC” was ignored by the community.

That boycott is why Couch’s promise won him votes.

Now it is time for Supervisor Couch to keep his promise.

That will only happen if you make it clear you expect him to.

The Mountain Needs its Own Voice

If responsible, motivated residents come together soon to establish local self-determination, there is still time.

A proposal needs to be put before Supervisor Couch before year’s end, asking that he fulfill his campaign promise.

He will need to be asked to secure the sign-off of the full Kern County Board of Supervisors. Then, in January, local candidates can declare themselves nominees. Their names would appear on the 2016 general election ballot.

Steering Our Own Ship

Those who brainstormed the future of beautiful Frazier Mountain Park—and you—are local leadership. Will you come together to define again our Mountain Community’s future? Then we can reach out to allies like Mr. Couch, along with county and state staff, to find the tools to turn our visions into realities. Maybe then our children will even be able to run in their own park again.— Patric Hedlund, Editor

This is part of the October 23, 2015 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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